Many games of amusement or chance, such as those games used at fairs and carnivals, utilize random or chance election of a number to determine winners of various prizes or prize tokens. Wheels of fortune, roulette wheels, darts and balls thrown at targets represent some games using random winner selection as amusement. Other attempts to present games with randomly selected winners apart from those listed have been made over the years and a preliminary search of prior patents has disclosed some related, but not anticipatory past patents from Class 119, Subclass 29; Class 272, Subclass 19; Class 273, Subclasses 138, 236, 398, 139 and 287.
The discovered patents range in age from those issued in the 1950s to that issued in the 1980s, and include:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,525,716, Okamoto PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 3,895,808, Averette PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 3,927,880, Petrusek PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,252, Mattson PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,039,193, Slater PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,251, Hornsby.
While each of these patents represents inventive skill of one sort, or another, none found employs a live animal as a random selector. Thus none offers the novelty, the uncontrolled conduct, or the honesty of applicant's game.